NEW YORK: US stocks rebounded with solid gains on Friday despite a budget deadlock that kept the government partially shut down for the fourth day in a row.
The Dow Jones Industrial Average gained 76.10 points (0.51 per cent) at 15,072.58.
The broad-based S&P 500 rose 11.84 (0.71 per cent) to 1,690.50, while the tech-rich Nasdaq Composite added 33.41 (0.89 per cent) at 3,807.75.
"Equities climbed throughout the session while showing little concern over the lack of progress in the Capitol Hill stalemate," Briefing.com analysts said in a market note.
"While the end result of the shutdown remains unclear, today's end result for equities was crystal clear. The major averages settled near their highs as all 10 sectors registered gains."
On Thursday the Dow closed below the 15,000 mark for the first time in a month as the budget battle between Democrats and Republicans appeared increasingly likely to roll into a face-off over raising the debt ceiling by the October 17 deadline.
Social media companies were adding buzz to Wall Street. Micro-messaging service Twitter revealed a much-awaited initial public offering plan after markets closed Thursday. The IPO was expected to be the most sought-after since Facebook's market debut in May 2012.
Facebook jumped 3.9 per cent after announcing it will start selling advertising on its Instagram photo- and video-sharing social network, which competes with Twitter's Vine service.
Sandwich shop chain Potbelly found hungry investors for its initial public offering. Shares skyrocketed to US$30.77, more than double the IPO price of US$14.
Union Pacific, operator of the largest railroad network in the US, fell almost 1.0 per cent after updating its third-quarter earnings forecast, below analyst estimates, and announcing it expected flat volumes in the quarter year-over-year.
Electric car maker Tesla gained 4.4 per cent, regaining half of the loss from the previous two days after an Internet video of a fire on one of its vehicles went viral. -- AFP
After a car chase ended in the driver's death, officials are trying to figure out who the woman behind the wheel was. The car was registered to Miriam Carey of Connecticut. VPC
Kevin Johnson, Donna Leinwand Leger and Doug Stanglin, USA TODAY 12:09 p.m. EDT October 4, 2013
The 34-year-old Connecticut woman who was shot and killed by police after a harrowing high-speed chase from the White House to Capitol Hill suffered from post-partum depression, her mother told ABC News.
Miriam Carey, a dental hygienist from Stamford, Conn., was identified as the driver of the black luxury sedan that first rammed a barrier at the White House, then sped to Capitol Hill, defying attempts by armed police to stop her Thursday afternoon. She was shot and killed fleeing her car near the Hart Senate Office Building
Afterward, police discovered Carey's 1-year-old daughter was in the backseat of her black Infiniti throughout the ordeal. The child, who was not injured, was taken to a hospital for a precaution and placed in protective custody.
Authorities who descended on Carey's condo in Stamford have not determined a motive for her bizarre behavior through downtown Washington, D.C.
Her mother, Idella Carey, told ABC News on Thursday night that her daughter began suffering from post-partum depression after giving birth to her daughter, Erica, last August.
"A few months later, she got sick," she said. "She was depressed. ... She was hospitalized."
Idella Carey said her daughter had no history of violence and that she had no idea why she was in Washington on Thursday.
The New York Daily News quoted Carey's former boss, dentist Brian Evans, as saying that she "fell down some stairs and she had a pretty significant head injury" in recent years.
Evans also said that Carey, who was let go last year, had a temper and became incensed over being told to quit parking in a handicapped spot at the medical building in Hamden, Conn., where she worked. That created friction between them, he said.
Carey's former employer in Connecticut, dentist Barry Weiss, told NBC Connecticut that she was a bit "headstrong" on a few occasions but was otherwise "an average employee."
Weiss also that said Carey "could be a bit rough," and after complaints from patients, was fired in August 2012.
"Nothing would have led us to think she would have done this," said Weiss.
Another former boss, dentist Steven Oken, for whom she worked eight years, described Carey as a "non-political person" who was "always happy."
Court records also show that Carey was sued last year by her condo association for failure to pay fees since 2010 on the Stamford home she owned since 2009. The lawsuit, involving $1,759 plus collection costs, was settled in February, the Associated Press reports.
U.S. Capitol Police Chief Kim Dine said the incident "appears to be an isolated, singular matter, with, at this point, no nexus to terrorism."
Two federal officials, who were not authorized to comment publicly, told USA TODAY that all shots were fired by law enforcement officers. One official said no gun was recovered from her car.
"This does not appear to be in any way an accident," Metropolitan Police Chief Cathy Lanier said Thursday. She noted that Carey twice tried to breach security barriers and struck a uniformed Secret Service officer near the White House.
The chaotic events began at 2:12 p.m. ET when the driver rammed a temporary barrier at 15th and E Streets NW, hitting the officer, said Secret Service chief Ed Donovan. Other Secret Service officers chased the woman east on Pennsylvania Avenue but did not shoot.
Lanier said Capitol Police officers pursued the speeding car eastbound and tried to stop it in Garfield Circle, just west of the Capitol lawn. A 23-year-veteran officer suffered non-life-threatening injuries when he crashed into a barrier.
Police had the woman's car surrounded but she escaped, ramming a Secret Service vehicle as she fled. Lanier said police then fired their first shots at the suspect.
The driver made her way onto Constitution Avenue before eventually stopping in the 100 blocks of Maryland Avenue NE, near the Hart Senate Office Building.
President Obama has canceled an upcoming trip to Asia because of the partial U.S. government shutdown, which entered its fourth day on Friday.
The White House announced late on Thursday that the president made his decision to cancel visits to Indonesia and Brunei based on the difficulty in moving forward with foreign travel in the face of the shutdown and his plans to continue pressuring Republicans to allow a vote to reopen the government.
The White House said Secretary of State John Kerry will lead U.S. delegations to both countries, as well as to Malaysia and the Philippines. Kerry will attend the APEC summit in Bali in place of the president.
Earlier on Thursday, Obama said a simple bill to fund the government with nothing else attached -- such as provisions regarding his signature health care plan, nicknamed "Obamacare" -- would pass the House of Representatives. Obama accused Republican House Speaker John Boehner of catering to a small group of conservative Republican extremists who want to defund or delay the health care plan as part of the next budget.
Boehner says Obama is refusing to negotiate. The speaker says all he wants is a discussion on the health care law and what he calls "fairness" for the American people.
Democrats say they will reject any Republican efforts to partially reopen the government.
Clean funding bill
Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid told CNN television Thursday that Boehner reneged on a promise to allow a vote on a clean funding bill, even after Democrats agreed to accept Republican spending levels. Reid said Boehner is afraid Republicans would oust him as speaker and urged Boehner to remember that the country is more important than his job.
The shutdown has furloughed more than 800,000 federal workers and closed down all but the most essential government services, including air traffic control, Border Patrol, and most food inspectors. The Voice of America is continuing to broadcast, but national parks and museums are closed, telephone calls for income tax help are unanswered, and some medical research projects are suspended.
With the shutdown prompting Obama to cancel his Asia trip, he will be missing the second APEC summit in a row. VOA White House correspondent Dan Robinson said this throws into question the United States' commitment to the Asia Pacific region.
"As you know, President Obama was not able to go to the APEC summit in Vladivostok last year because of the U.S. presidential election campaign. This is bound to raise further questions in Asia among those who are questioning U.S. commitment not only to the strategic pivot but to the whole regional focus or rebalancing of U.S. economic interests in the region," said Robinson.
Robinson also said fears have been growing for some time that economic strain is causing the U.S. to lose focus on security issues.
"There have been serious questions beginning at least a year ago about the U.S. budget sequestration and the fact that the United States couldn't get a budget done and concerns about the U.S.maintaining security relationships. Now, the U.S. military strategic pivot is moving forward, analysts say, but again there are these nagging questions about whether the full U.S. government has been engaged or can be engaged in this Asia rebalance," he explained.
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